Death in the Middle East

http://news.sky.com/story/1292467/missing-israeli-teens-three-bodies-found

Missing Israeli Teens: Three Bodies Found
The Israeli military made the discovery north of Hebron, and security forces and Palestinians have reportedly clashed in the area.



(L-R) Gilad Shaar, Naftali Frankel and Eyal Yifrach

(L-R) Gilad Shaar, Naftali Frenkel, Eyal Yifrach
(L-R) Gilad Shaar, Naftali Frankel and Eyal Yifrach



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Three bodies have been found in the search for Israeli teenagers who went missing in the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli military made the discovery near the village of Halhul, close to where Naftali Frenkel, Nof Ayalon and Gilad Shaar disappeared on June 12.

There has been a large build-up of troops in the area, about four miles north of Hebron.

Security forces and Palestinians are said to have clashed in Halhul.

The Israeli cabinet is meeting over the discovery of the bodies, which were buried in a field.

Israel had said Hamas militants abducted the students, who apparently disappeared while hitch-hiking earlier this month.

Dozens of Palestinians have been detained in the search for 16-year-olds Naftali Frenkel, a US passport holder from Nof Ayalon, and Gilad Shaar, from Telman, and 19-year-old Eyal Yifrach, from Elad.

Among those held were a number of Hamas members of the Palestinian parliament and several prisoners recently released by Israel.

Sky's Tom Rayner said: "Israel's Channel 2 has just been reporting that the Israeli authorities believe these bodies show signs that they were murdered in the time very shortly after they were taken.

"They do not believe they have been held for any period of time as hostages. They believe they were killed very quickly."

He added: "There will be big questions now about what kind of reaction Israel has to the deaths of these three teenagers

"It has already carried out very significant actions on Hamas and Hamas' members across the West Bank, but you would expect that there will be at least a call from the Israeli public for some kind of retaliation.

"There is obviously a possibility of that and the Israeli cabinet will undoubtedly be talking about action they may take in reaction to the finding of these bodies just outside Hebron."

An Israeli Defence Force spokesman said: "The bodies are currently going through forensic identification. The families of the abducted teens have been notified."

The missing trio are all students at a Yeshiva, or religious school, in Gush Etzion, a Jewish settlement bloc just south of the Palestinian city of Bethlehem.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had said the alleged abductions were the result of this month's power-sharing deal between the Palestinian factions of Hamas and Fatah.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri had denied the group, which runs the Gaza Strip, was involved.

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I shudder to think what will happen next.

Something will happen now.......Israel doesn't usually sit idly by.

Nope.

http://news.sky.com/story/1292725/israel-bombs-gaza-after-teenagers-found-dead

Israeli fighter jets have bombed dozens of sites in the Gaza Strip hours after vowing to take revenge on the killers of three teenagers.

Soldiers also demolished the West Bank homes of two main suspects in the murders of the kidnapped trio.

A man was shot dead after allegedly throwing a grenade at troops attempting to arrest a militant in the Jenin refugee camp.

And then the families and friends of the people killed and injured by Israel in these revenge attacks will want their own revenge, and on and on it will go.

Interesting interview on AJ with someone asking exactly who has benefited from the deaths of these boys. Here's a clue, it isn't Hamas.

On their site:

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/07/israel-bombs-gaza-after-settler-bodies-found-20147171631852351.html

On Monday night Israel demolished the homes of Marwan Qawasmeh and Amer Abu Aisha, two Hebron-area residents who the Israeli government has named as suspects.

The use of punitive demolitions revived a practice that was almost entirely discontinued in 2005.

The Israeli security cabinet also held an emergency meeting on Monday night, which ended with no major decisions on further actions, according to a government source. The cabinet will reconvene on Tuesday.

Some politicians have called for harsher steps against Hamas, including targeted assassinations. "I don’t know how many leaders of Hamas will remain alive after tonight," said Tzachi Hanegbi, the deputy foreign minister.

That's disgusting. Why not hold an HONEST investigation and then point fingers, instead of turning into the very thing the founders of Israel most feared?

That's disgusting. Why not hold an HONEST investigation and then point fingers, instead of turning into the very thing the founders of Israel most feared?

It;s turned into a military state and the worst thing is their prime minister, who immediately blamed Hamas withjout even looking into the matter. I saw somewhere this morning that a new jihadist group has claimed responsibility. Gaza is a ghetto as is thew West bank. I have Jewish friends who are appalled at Israel's responses. No Hamas are aty fault for much of the mayhem, but not the civilians. LL

I missed the latest jihadist group, LL - I am sure the Middle East really doesn't need more murderous lunatics.

I am disgusted by Israel's behaviour over this matter, it's no better than the Nazis shooting 100 civilians for every solider they lost in occupied territory.

I used to admire Israel for building a new nation after the Holocaust, but not these days, not when they do things like this.

I support the JEWISH people but not the muderous crew in Israel.   I know of Jews who emigrated to Israel and have returned home, sickened by the way the country has gone.  Netanyahu has no intention of trying to make peace with the Palestinians, so as long as he is in control this will go on and on.  He is of the same mould as Assad, Ghadaffi and Saddam, brutal, unprincipled and power craxy - and that's a description by a Jewish returnee friend of mine.  But all tyrants sooner or later get their comeuppance and he will get his.   I just hope he doesn't drag Israel down with him.   LL

Yes, that's a good distinction between the people and their leaders, LL. The very LAST thing the Middle East needs right now is any more warmongering.

bb1 wrote:Yes, that's a good distinction between the people and their leaders, LL. The very LAST thing the Middle East needs right now is any more warmongering.

Israel has been assassinating opponents since the 1950s, when yoiu look down the list it is unbelievable, rockets, snipers, car bombs, shootings, the list goes on and on. They desperately need a leader who is not a terrorist, an exterminator, a madman who kills civilians. I don't condone Hamas or Fatah, but I can understand the people's desperation. Jews and Arabs lived side by side for many years before WW2, the giving of land to the Jews fleeing Europe is the basis of all this. I despair, I really do. LL   

It's also self-defeating. These people who are currently under attack by Israel are NOT going to be cowed into submission. It is going to have the same effect as Obama's accursed drones. Where once there was one alleged terrorist, now there are ten real ones.

bb1 wrote:It's also self-defeating. These people who are currently under attack by Israel are NOT going to be cowed into submission. It is going to have the same effect as Obama's accursed drones. Where once there was one alleged terrorist, now there are ten real ones.

The main reason why Netanyahu can get away with what he does is the collective 'guilt' people, especially the Europeans, feel over the Holocaust.  It was a real happening, a dreadful part of history but there are those who use it as a weapon to ensure Israel exists.  One of those is Netanyahu and his hard-line followers.  The settlers are examples of this mindset.   Palestinians are to some of them on a par with the blacks in apartheid S Africa, lower second class people.   LL

What I found interesting is that in some M.E. countries, jews are not banned but Israelis are.

The Palestinians are people too (in case the Israelis forgot) and deserve to be treated with respect. This knee jerk reaction is too too much.....

lily wrote:What I found interesting is that in some M.E. countries, jews are not banned but Israelis are.  

The Palestinians are people too (in case the Israelis forgot) and deserve to be treated with respect.  This knee jerk reaction is too too much.....

I have a friend, now retired, a Conservative Jew ie one who is not Orthodox, sort of middle way.. He has spent most of his life working around the world, he has spent lots of time in the ME - but he does have the advantage of having a GB passport, thus making it clear to everyone that he is NOT an Israeli. He refuses to visit Israel as long as they, as he puts it, steal other peoples; land, kill children and women, deny food and water to the Occupied Lands and make a mockery of the Bible aand his beliefs. He says they are NOT true Jews any more than Jihadis are true Muslims. LL

IMO, it's like the difference between Germans and Nazis, or Russians and Communists - ordinary people are NOT responsible for the actions of whatever lunatic ends up ruling their nation, but it's always the ordinary people who get killed, and rarely the lunatic leader?

bb1 wrote:IMO, it's like the difference between Germans and Nazis, or Russians and Communists - ordinary people are NOT responsible for the actions of whatever lunatic ends up ruling their nation, but it's always the ordinary people who get killed, and rarely the lunatic leader?

Exactly, the big delusion of the 'Leader' being that what they do is for the good of the people, not for the aggrandisement of the 'Leader'. We have an example in N Korea, where the Kims really do believ that the treatment of their cowed and terrified citizens is the right way to go. I will give you another example, the trial of Adolf Eichmann took place in Israel, but his crimes mainly took place in Germany and Hungary. He should have been tried in those countries, not kidnapped and flown to Israel where the outcome was already decided before he even left S American shores. Israel trumpeted the whole event to the world, it was a terror tactic, though Eichmann did deserve all that came to him he did not get a fair trial, IMO. The message was, and still is that, if we don't like you, we will get you somehow and you will die. LL

Agree with your comments Bonny. LL, I know a lot about conservative Judaism.   

Israel has done it this time - their police have beaten up a 'Palestinian' teenager who was actually an American.

US 'Profoundly Troubled' Over Beating Video
The footage is said to show a 15-year-old American citizen being beaten by Israeli security forces in East Jerusalem.

[video]

The US has said it is "profoundly troubled" by video allegedly showing an American teenager being beaten by Israeli security forces.

The mother of 15-year-old Tariq Abu Khadair told Sky News she is in "a complete state of shock" and Israel's justice ministry has started an investigation.

He is said to have been punched and kicked in a suspected attack by two police officers that was caught on amateur video.

The boy's family say he is a US citizen and the cousin of 16-year-old Arab teenager Mohammed Abu Khadir who was found dead earlier this week.

Palestinians say Mohammed was killed by Israeli extremists in a revenge attack following the alleged Hamas killing of three Israeli youths. The attack led to three days of violent protests.

Initial results of a post-mortem examination on Saturday showed he was burned alive, according to Palestinian Attorney General Abdelghani al-Owaiwi.

The mobile phone footage - said to have been recorded in East Jerusalem - was released by a human rights group that described it as state sanctioned violence against children.

Full story at:

http://news.sky.com/story/1295705/us-profoundly-troubled-over-beating-video

The photo of the damage sustained by the boy looks horrendous.   

I didn't copy it for that reason, Lily, he's in a real mess, isn't he?

Yes he is, Bonny. Poor kid.

Last night I watched a documentary on an Israeli journalist and his ongoing attempts to show the worlf what life in Israel is really like.  He is hated by Israelis for his exposires of the state of affairs for Palestinians under occupation.  This is the link to his online newspaper.   http://www.haaretz.com/meta/Tag/Gideon%20Levy

This is the actual program:

I get the impression that Israel simply doesn't care what anyone says, LL.

http://news.sky.com/story/1296023/boy-in-beating-video-row-faces-house-arrest

A teenager who was filmed apparently being beaten by Israeli forces is to be put under house arrest, his family has told Sky News.

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They aren't sorry for beating him up, they're sorry he turned out to be American. And they seem to be hell-bent on smearing the boy that was burned to death by persons unknown.

I find it shocking to see what Israel is turning into.

I find it shocking to see what Israel is turning into.

Or how the occupied areas are now ghettos.  A Jewish friend told me of woman who went into labot and was refused entry throught the checkpoint and ended up walking 2km to the hospital where the baby was kept in while the mother was sent back home.  Alsdo a boy who walked out of his house na was shot dead by a sniper as he was seen threatening a soldier.   Both incidents are recorded in the documentary.   Chaim, my friend, is a Jew, who emigrated to israel when a child, anf left in disgust after seeing what was going on.   He says that it's the settlers, most of whom are Orthodox, ultra Orthodox or Hasidim, and make no secret that they consider Palestinians as dirty untermensch ie the same as the way the Nazis thought of the Jews or the Boers in S Africe did of the blacks..   LL